6 Pros and Cons of Homework

It’s a debate that has been going on for a while: is it still a benefit to give children homework? Is it really necessary? Does giving homework improve performance in school? These and a lot more questions can be thrown at the practice of giving homework. While there are advocates, there are some who are not so supportive. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of homework:

List of Pros of Homework

1. It allows students to apply what they have learned in class.
How can a teacher know if a student learned anything from the discussion had that day? Do they just proceed to the next topic without checking whether their students learned anything at all?

Homework supports believe that giving student homework after a lesson is a good assessment of whether or not they really understood what was being talked about in class. Be it literature or mathematics, giving a student homework allows them to tap into what they have learned and apply it.

2. It teaches students how to be responsible.
Life is comprised of many things. For a student, it’s getting up in the morning, eating breakfast and going to school. But outside of that, students also need a life: spending time with family, being with friends, reading a book, catching a few shows in television, watching the movies, reading articles on the internet and so much more. While homework can take time away from these activities, it does teach students how to budget their time. Constantly practicing this will carry over into adulthood and eventually help them when they start working.

3. It helps students develop organizational skills.
Often times, a student is given more than one assignment in a day. One may be for their mathematics class and the other for their biology class. The amount of homework a student gets in a day allows them to practice allocating time into getting those tasks done. After which, they can do whatever activities they like, be it reading a book or listening to music.

List of Cons of Homework

1. It takes time away from family and friends.
Sometimes, students need to put in work during the weekends for homework. This does take precious time away for them to spend time with their family and friends. This is particularly true when several are assigned to a student and all most happen to be rather difficult.

2. It really isn’t a true measure of what a student learned.
Some students work on their homework honestly. They try to solve the equations given to them; and they head to the library or go online to read about a historical figure whose life will be discussed during the next meeting. However, some students like taking the shortcut: they just copy the answers off their classmates.

3. It sometimes isn’t relevant or useful.
Students and their parents would appreciate homework more if it had actual relevance to the topic being discussed. For instance, assigning students to read about King Henry VIII for an upcoming discussion on the monarch can prove useful because it can drive interaction. But homework like “print out a list of all the species under Class Mammalia” just for points isn’t helpful at all.